5 One-Hit Wonder Love Songs From The '90s That Still Have Us Head Over Heels

Though the music of the '90s is often associated with angst and alienation, love was in the air throughout the decade. Just look, and you'll find romance at the heart of Gen X's biggest hits — and in some of the '90's best one-hit wonders. There were proclamations of love, slow shoegaze-inspired confessions of steamy desire, and sweet little poppy hits about how love makes people not care about anyone but their crush. 

These songs were the soundtrack to so many young lives, from dudes in flannel on dates with cute femmes in tank tops and maxi skirts, to goth cuties courting Lilith fair folkies. For this list, we're considering one-hit wonders, those artists known for one song who charted in the U.S. on the Hot 100 (or in one case, one artist whose song was everywhere, but was denied entry for a reason that might surprise you). And we're looking at strictly love songs, those bubbly, intoxicating tracks that made our hearts swell deep into Y2k and beyond.

The Proclaimers are one of those "one-hit wonders in America, big overseas" kind of bands. For those in the U.S., the Scottish duo of brothers Craig and Charlie Reid is known mostly for "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)," a charming folk-rock highlight of 1993. In the U.K., the duo also had chart success with "Letter from America," "I'm on My Way," and a cover of Roger Miller's "King of the Road," but charted only once in the U.S. with "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)."

However, it earned the song a place in the hearts of hopeless romantics. "The song [(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles] is a devotional thing about how far you'd walk for a woman's love," Charlie Reid told The Guardian in 2022. While the earworm, call-and-response "Da-da da da (Da-da da da)" chorus may not have made it the best song to include on a mixtape for your crush, it was still a moving proclamation of the power of love.

Though initially released five years earlier in the U.K., where it reached No. 1, the Proclaimers decided to put out "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" as a single in North America after the song was included on the soundtrack for the 1993 hit film, "Benny & Joon." After 11 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" peaked at No. 3 in August 1993, earning the brothers Reid a gold record from the RIAA.

Rarely has the intensity of longing been captured so well in a song as with "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star. Released in 1993 on its second studio album, "So Tonight That I Might See," the song opens with vocalist Hope Sandoval singing, "I wanna hold the hand inside you / I wanna take the breath that's true." With guitarist and composer David Roback's twangy, sun-kissed arrangement, "Fade Into You" became a mainstay of '90s love.

Roback told news.com.au in 2018 that he and Sandoval wrote the lyrics and music to "Fade Into You" in a single day. "We weren't trying to write a hit song — we were just writing a song. I think we had a melody and a feel and we just followed that feel. And that became the song." Despite only reaching No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1994, "Fade Into You" has ensured Mazzy Star's legacy by refusing to fade away. Sandoval's ethereal voice continues to inspire, with Billie Eilish and Miley Cyrus being big fans. Plus, the song lends itself well to movies and TV shows, and was featured in '90s classics like "Starship Troopers," as well as later shows such as "Gilmore Girls," "Yellowjackets," and multiple episodes across the "CSI" franchise.

Relationships are hard and romance is complicated, but love? Love is simple. Love is pure. Love is a catchy song about seeing your crush go by and the thoughts about them that go racin' through your brain. And what song captured that infatuation best during the '90s than the La's "There She Goes"? With a dynamic guitar riff and simple lyrics ("There she goes / There she goes again"), the song creates an atmosphere of effervescent joy. 

It's so good at capturing that twee feeling of '90s love that we can overlook that it was first released in 1988 as a stand-alone single. However, when it was re-released in '90 as part of the La's self-titled debut album, "There She Goes" went to No. 13 in the U.K. and No. 2 on the Modern Rock Tracks in the U.S. (No. 49 on the Hot 100). The song also became a hit for the second time right as the '90's were ending: Sixpence None The Richer, best known for "Kiss Me," defied the "One-Hit Wonder" label by releasing a version that cracked the Top 40 in the U.S. in 1999.

While the '90s were full of songs for first-time crushes and puppy love, Edwyn Collins had a track for those who had love under their skin. "A Girl Like You" has, with all due respect, a sleaziness about it, the kind that makes love feel less like a matter of the heart and something more glandular. The fuzzed-out guitar turns love into an insatiable craving, while the keys and marimba add an element of sensual mystery, which, frankly, is the best part; "A Girl Like You" reveals that love can become a confusing obsession.

For Collins, "A Girl Like You" wasn't his first brush with success. He was the vocalist for Scottish post-punk outfit Orange Juice, which had a Top 40 hit in the U.K. with "Rip It Up" in '82. After the group disbanded, Collins went solo. He eventually found his way back to the charts with "A Girl Like You," a makeshift mod revival three years before the first "Austin Powers" movie hit theaters. 

 "A Girl Like You," released in December 1994, eventually hit No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995, partially thanks to its inclusion on the "Empire Records" soundtrack.) And though he never replicated the song's success, Collins remains grateful. "I didn't have a major record deal when 'A Girl Like You' was a hit," he told The Observer in 2008 (via The Guardian). "I lived in a grotty one-bedroom flat. Because I owned the copyright, that one song bought me my house."

The Cardigans' "Lovefool" is so embedded in the minds of every '90s kid that just hearing its opening notes will prompt them to recite the lyrics by heart — or, at least, they'll sing along to its infectious chorus: "Love me, Love me / Say that you love me / Fool me, fool me / Go on and fool me." After all, what is love but a desperate, vulnerable plea to another? As vocalist Nina Persson sings at the end of the chorus, love is telling someone, "I can't care 'bout anything but you." 

The song, which is darker than the earworm chorus would indicate, details a relationship on the rocks, with Presson opening up with, "Dear, I fear we're facing a problem / You love me no longer, I know and / Maybe there's nothing that I can do / To make you do." Yet, Presson is not willing to give up on romance just yet. 

"Lovefool" was as poppy as Jolt Cola and Pop Rocks, and just as potent. The song's inclusion in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 classic "Romeo + Juliet" introduced the band to American audiences and forever associated the song with young love. However, it didn't crack the Hot 100, despite reaching No. 2 on Billboard's U.S. Radio Songs chart in 1997 and the top of the Pop Airplay chart that same year. Why? Because, at the time, non-commercially available songs were not eligible for the Hot 100. The Cardigans tried again in 1998 with "My Favorite Game," which reached No. 16 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart but also didn't crack Billboard's Hot 100.